1) Cultural Administration policy comparison between the two Koreas, as well as its roots in Choson dynasty and the Japanese period

 I couldn’t find a lengthy, dedicated comparative research on the North and South cultural administrative policy. But I am attaching a short comparison, an excerpt from the book North Korea’s Archeology and Cultural Heritage Management (북녘의 고고학과 문화재관리; 지은이: 장호수; 출판: 백산자료원) for your information.

2) Administrative procedures for Joint Korean excavations (do they underlie joint or particular heritage administration laws or agreements)

 North and South Korea conducted a joint excavation of the Manwoldae site with governmental funding from 2007 to 2008. In this case, the Cultural Heritage Administration gave the funding, and private bodies from the North and the South executed the excavation project under a mutual agreement on excavation details (period, scale, staff, etc.).

3) After a North-South joint excavation in the Kaesong Industrial City, the Korea Land Corporation brought back some of the excavated finds now on display in their museum. How were they legally able, allowed to bring part of the excavation finds to South Korea? Are they considered private or public ownership?

 Regarding this question, the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage provided the answer as follows: 개성공단의 시굴 및 발굴조사는 한국토지공사 소속의 토지박물관에서 주관하여 추진되었습니다. 아래의 내용은 당시 담당자와의 통화내용을 옮긴 것입니다.
“현재 개성공단의 공동 발굴 과정에서 출토된 유물은 남측에 전시되지 않고 있습니다. 다만 발굴의 종료 후 일부 유물에 한하여 보고서 작업 등의 이유로 남측으로 반출이 허용되었으나 지금은 모두 북측으로 반환한 상태입니다. 그리고 유물의 대여 등에 관한 모든 사항은 남측과 북측이 상호 합의서를 작성하여 이를 바탕으로 이루어졌습니다. 유물의 반입과 관련해서 남측의 경우는 법적인 문제가 없었던 것으로 알고 있습니다만, 북측의 경우 법적으로 문제가 있었으나 이를 묵인하고 합의서를 작성하였던 것으로 알고 있습니다.”

4) The steps and law behind how private property (e.g. temple stupas, relics, farmer finds ecc) is turned public property and gets into the care of a museum

 Regarding this question, you can refer to Article 61 of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act (문화재보호법 제61조) and Article 59 of the Enforcement Rules of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act (문화재보호법 시행규칙 제59조). Concerning these provisions, please refer to the attached file.

5) What are the decision processes behind the move of cultural relics from a provincial museum (분관 (경주)부립박물관) to the central national museum? What are the criterion?

 The National Museum of Korea and provincial museums are not under the supervision of the Cultural Heritage Administration. As far as I know, the transfer of artifacts between museums is done through their mutual consultations. Regarding this question, you may contact individual museums of your interest.